


In Sickness and in Cats

by warsfeil



Category: 07-Ghost
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-16
Updated: 2013-04-16
Packaged: 2017-12-08 15:52:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/763189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/warsfeil/pseuds/warsfeil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something is wrong with Ayanami's panthers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Sickness and in Cats

One of the cats was sick. Had Ayanami been absolutely anyone else, he might not have reacted the way he did — he might have simply called a veterinarian, gone to work, and carried on with the assumption that she would be perfectly all right. That would likely have been the easier option. Instead, Ayanami had sent for the vet, informed Hyuuga and Katsuragi that he wouldn't be in to work, and promptly decided it was his duty to make sure that his panther was all right. 

She was purring and meowing loudly and intermittently, she hadn't been eating, and she was continually either pacing around or lying listlessly on her side as the master of the thousand yard stare. Worse still, she was looking at Ayanami like he was invading her space whenever he reached out to try and reassure her or make certain she wasn't running a fever. She'd adopted the closet as her place to hide, and it was a far cry away from the way she normally attempted to run the entire apartment.

The other panther was in the other room, apparently unconcerned. For a cat that so regularly fussed over both his companions, Ayanami was somewhat irritated that now was when he chose to languish on the couch. To some degree, it reassured Ayanami that she wasn't in any terrible danger — she would likely be fine, he thought. Perhaps it was simply the flu. On the other hand, if it was something he could have avoided, and he hadn't, and she suffered any long-term ramifications from it, he would never stop blaming himself. His cats were some of the only creatures that didn't attempt to hide in terror from him. He would be appalled if he had ruined that or given any indication that it could be ruined.

Ayanami stood up at the knock on the door, quickly stepping over with the hopes that it was the vet.

"Aa, Aya-tan, I thought I'd come check on you," Hyuuga said. Ayanami kept his face carefully schooled. He was hardly going to express how worried he was to Hyuuga, but he also wasn't going to send him away simply because he wasn't the vet. Hyuuga, after all, was one of the only other creatures that didn't run in terror from Ayanami (even though he, perhaps, had more reason than most, given how many times he'd been on the receiving end of Ayanami's whip). 

"One of the cats is sick," Ayanami said, turning to go back to her side. Hyuuga could close the door after himself. He heard the door close a moment later, felt Hyuuga following behind him — quiet, for once. The silence made her meows all the more loud, whenever she did them, yowls that trailed off into purring noises. Hyuuga waited at the doorframe to the bedroom, considering the cat from a distance instead of immediately wandering in. Ayanami was thankful for that, at least. She clearly didn't have the energy required to fight Hyuuga, even if it was merely another game, and he wouldn't have wanted her to waste it.

There was a long silence from both men, punctuated only by the purring of the cat as Ayanami carefully pet her head, lavishing as much affection on her as he could in a desperate bid to make her better. If he knew more about animal physiology, he could have used his zaiphon... but he knew people, not animals. It would have put her in even more danger.

When there was another knock at the door, Hyuuga was the one to turn on his heels and answer it, his voice wafting into the bedroom easily over Ayanami's tense silence. That was the veterinarian, then. Ayanami felt a small degree of unease fall away from himself, only to be quickly replaced with more worry. Her sickness wouldn't go away simply because the veterinarian was around. It could be serious...

"Aya-tan," Hyuuga said, and his voice was still cheerful even if the situation was dire. Ayanami was fairly certain that Hyuuga himself could be dying on the floor and he would still use that same tone of voice. 

The veterinarian stepped over to the cat without properly acknowledging Ayanami, a rudeness borne of someone who took his job more seriously than any sort of interpersonal relationships. That was part of why that had been the vet that Ayanami had called. He didn't need someone social, so long as they were good. 

Slipping his hands across her fur, the veterinarian made quiet noises of reassurance to the cat as he took stock of everything. She growled a bit, low in her throat, but as much as the vet seemed to ignore people, he seemed to have just as much of a natural way with animals. She didn't mind overmuch, and the examination was quickly over. The vet stood up, offering Ayanami a small smile.

"It's good news," the vet said, and relief washed through Ayanami, tempered only with a vague sense of confusion.

"What is it?"

"She's pregnant."

Hyuuga managed to cover the bark of laughter he let out with his hand. Which was lucky, considering Ayanami would have whipped him just to help relieve his own nervous tension if he'd actually laughed properly. Wisely, Ayanami simply backed out of the room and let the veterinarian go to work, sending Hyuuga a glare that promised death if Hyuuga said a word. 

"I'll go let everyone in the office know the good news!" Hyuuga said, the laughter making his tone sound even more cheerful than usual. "You should have let us know earlier! We would have had a kitten shower!" 

That time, Ayanami _did_ put a hand on his whip, and Hyuuga quickly stepped out of the rooms before Ayanami could make good on the implied threat. 

Five hours later, Ayanami had an exhausted but purring panther, two kittens, and another panther that was wisely giving the mother a wide berth, should she abruptly decide that he was a threat. He'd ventured in, apparently to make sure that his kittens (because Ayanami had no doubt that they were his kittens, even though Ayanami was generally very good at making certain they weren't allowed opportunity to mate) were all right before taking refuge back on the couch. 

Ayanami also had a bill from the veterinarian, a list of instructions, a shopping list, and a gift basket that a very weary military messenger had delivered with a variety of congratulatory "it's a boy!" and "it's a girl!" lollipops inside of it. 

He was going to kill Hyuuga. Just as soon as he felt like removing himself from the presence of his panther and her nursing kittens, anyway. At the moment, the three of them were all purring contentedly, with the blind kittens kneading insistently to get more milk and the mother occasionally reaching down to groom them. 

Well. At least she was all right, then. 

Konatsu had seen to it that once the crisis was no longer a crisis, Ayanami's important paperwork had been delivered to his room, and Ayanami took out his favorite pen to begin working on it. He would have counted it as time lost if his cats were any other creature — but they were his, and even if it had been something of a false alarm, Ayanami thought that worry was a perfectly rational response, so long as no one but the Black Hawks realized how worried he'd truly been. Everything had turned out all right. It was a rarity, in his life, and it wasn't until then that Ayanami realized he had automatically been preparing for the worst with no thought that perhaps things would be all right. Despite that, they'd turned out fine, and would have even without him having been present.

Ayanami smiled a little and uncapped his pen.

**Author's Note:**

> For blackhawkcommander @ tumblr, to make up for a bad day.


End file.
